Victory

Unmade Movies

Harold Pinter's screenplay of Josef Conrad's last major novel, in a special adaptation for radio by Sir Richard Eyre.

It's 1900 in the Dutch East Indies. Disenchanted with life and humanity, Heyst, a mysterious Swedish Baron, lives alone on a deserted island.

He believes he can avoid suffering by cutting himself off from others, but his life is altered when he visits the neighbouring island for a doctor's check up. Here he meets and falls in love with Lena, a young English violinist, traveling across the Pacific with a small commercial ladies Orchestra.

Surrounded by predatory older men, including the hotel manager Schomberg, she is drawn to Heyst and the sense of mystery that surrounds him. 

Together, in the middle of the night, they escape by boat to his island.

Cast

Narrator ...... Simon Russell Beale
Heyst ...... Bjarne Henriksen
Lena ...... Vanessa Kirby
Davidson ...... Matthew Marsh
Ricardo ...... Mark Strong
Jones ...... Robert Portal
Schomberg ...... Patrick O'Kane
Mrs Schomberg ...... Helen Schelesinger
Pedro ...... Martin Marquez
Chang ...... Paul Chan
Mrs Zangiacomo ...... Flaminea Cinque

Sound Design: John Leonard and Wilfredo Acosta

Director: Richard Eyre

Producer: Laurence Bowen

A Feelgood Fiction production for BBC Radio 4

Drama

OTX Sat 28th Feb 2015

14:30 on BBC Radio 4 FM

Axel Heyst, a dreamer and a restless drifter, believes he can avoid suffering by cutting himself off from others. Then he becomes involved in the operation of a coal company on a remote island in the Malay Archipelago, and when it fails he turns his back on humanity once more. But his life alters when he rescues a young English girl, Lena, from Zangiacomo's Ladies' Orchestra and the evil innkeeper Schomberg, taking her to his island retreat. The affair between Heyst and Lena begins with her release, but the relationship shifts as Lena struggles to save Heyst from the detachment and isolation that have inhibited and influenced his life.

Marked by a violent and tragic conclusion, Victory is both a tale of rescue and adventure and a perceptive study of a complex relationship and of the power of love. 

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